From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD
100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds:
New York Giants & New York Yankees
1921 Season Revisited
In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lose 102 games. Rebranded in 1913 as the Yankees, they move just a few blocks away into the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Senior Circuit's New York Giants. To the chagrin of Giants manager John McGraw, the Americans proceed to lose another 94 games.
Known to hold a grudge, McGraw two full decades later still harbors much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees. As they were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.
As long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remains amicably strained. Mainly because the middling Americans, except for one season in 1916, never elevated themselves above the ranks of Junior Circuit also-rans. But that changed in 1919 when they briefly vied for the pennant but tuckered out down the stretch to finish third. A franchise record of 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders. However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per se, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season at the turnstile in a decade.
Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates shift along the New York/New England fault. The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.
Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball. However, it was an accomplishment for which John McGraw had little appreciation. He believes players work too hard and earnestly to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.
Gotham's citizenry never before descended from Coogan's Bluff in such quantity and spectacle as in 1920 as the Giants would set a franchise record with 929,609 reported attendance. However, the New York Nationals faced an economic dilemma of Ruthian proportions. McGraw's disdain for his tenants was heightened when the Yankees outdrew the host Giants in their own home for the first time in each franchise's history. Headlined by Babe Ruth, the Yankees seized the city's attention, evidenced by an all-time major league record of 1,289,422 in attendance.
In 1921, over two million fans would again pack the Polo Grounds. Babe Ruth would continue accomplishing the unimaginable - if the preceding season wasn't surreal enough, he proceeds to top it. All the while, with each passing day, John McGraw grows more incensed. Lest we forget, New York City is still Little Napoleon's empire.
Sharing a ballpark is becoming an insufferable condition—the Giants attempt to evict the Yankees before the 1921 season to no avail. But a solution lies not too far away ...
Until then, two major league titans charge headlong into a season-ending October clash at the Polo Grounds. It is New York City's first-ever World's Championship Subway Series. All games are played at the Polo Grounds, making Coogan's Bluff the center of the baseball universe.
This is my replay of that season. Of course, I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible. But, more than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.
- Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE
Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!
GAME #118
POLO GROUNDS
Giants Even Series With Cardinals
The Giants play before a more representative crowd but, more importantly, get back in the win column. With 25,000 on hand, the home team builds a 6-2 lead through four. In turn, Fred Toney holds the Cardinals at bay despite yielding two more rather inconsequential runs in the final frame. Toney allows four runs on eleven hits and two walks with two strikeouts for the win. His record improves to 14-8 with a 3.77 ERA. St. Louis first baseman Jack Fournier wields two hits, including a double, and drives home two. Starter Bill Bailey is removed after four innings but not before surrendering six runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks in a losing effort. Dave Bancroft goes 3 for 4 with a double and two runs batted in, and in a near mirror effort, Ross Youngs likewise goes 3 for 4 with a triple and two runs driven home. Irish Meusel, Frankie Frisch, and Fred Toney each drive in one. The Giants even the series with St. Louis at one and shave one-half game from their deficit behind Pittsburgh.
- FINAL: STL 4; NYG 7
- RECORD: 70-48 (.593); second place, 6.5 GB of Pittsburgh
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GAME #111
Sportsman's Park
Make-Up: 7/24/1921
Urban Shocker Outlasts Bob Shawkey; George Sisler Finishes What He Starts
To the delight of the St. Louis faithful, veteran starter Urban Shocker outlasts Bob Shawkey in the first game of a twin bill at Sportsman's Park. First baseman George Sisler doubles home the game's opening run in the first. Helped along by two St. Louis errors, the Yankees score twice in the fifth. But Jack Tobin's three-run home run against Shawkey in the bottom of the frame puts the Browns back in front. That is until the top of the fifth when Elmer Smith's hit ties the game at four. George Sisler singles leading off the sixth, then advances to second. Baby Doll Jacobson singles to left field with one out, scoring Sisler for a 5-4 lead and the final margin of victory. Urban allows just one hit over the final three innings. Despite striking out nine Cardinals, Bob Shawkey surrenders five runs on seven hits for the loss. Babe Ruth doubles and drives home one run giving him 130 to date.
- FINAL: NYG 4; STL 5
⚾
GAME #112
Sportsman's Park
Yankees Humbled By St. Louis Novice Billy Bayne
The Cardinals' 22-year old left-hander, Billy Bayne, who entered the 1921 season with just 20 games of major league experience, hurls arguably the finest game of his brief career. Bayne allows four hits and just two walks with ten strikeouts in a complete-game shutout victory. Wally Pipp and Aaron Ward wield extra bases but are left stranded. Roger Peckinpaugh and Babe Ruth account for the Yankees' only other hits. George Sisler drives home the Browns' first run and scores their last. Overall, Sisler scores three times and drives home two. Baby Doll Johnson leads the Browns with three hits and a run scored. Yankee starter Rip Collins loses after surrendering five runs (four earned) on nine hits and three walks with four strikeouts through seven innings. Right-hander Bill Piercy enters in relief of Collins in the eighth and proceeds to surrender five unearned runs on three hits and one walk. The Browns sweep the twin bill costing the Yankees 1.5 games in the standings.
- FINAL: NYY 0; STL 10
- RECORD: 68-44 (.607); second place, 2.5 GB of Cleveland
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